Day 3 - ending near Danville, IA - Tri-points on the Tri-speed

May 16, 2013

Day 3 - ending near Danville, IA

Posted via email Fri May 17 09:14:01 2013 PDT

It rained, with lightning and thunder, off and on overnight. Awake at 5:50am to more rain that lasted a few hours. Ate breakfast at 8:35am. Dried out tent and packed. Left at 11:01am.

My destination today was Geode State Park in Iowa, with a stop along the way in Middletown, Iowa, to see my uncle Gene.

Following advice of a friend at church, who's from western Illinois, I started out west on Lock and Dam Road. My goal was to avoid, as much as possible, the two-lane, no-shoulder section of US-34. That worked out well, with help from a southeast wind pushing me along. The Burlington bridge over the Mississippi River has a wide shoulder, so that was easy.

I navigated around a flooded parking lot to arrive at the Iowa Welcome Center in Burlington at 1:13pm. Picked up a few brochures and enjoyed talking with an information person. Before I left, I also got a Burlington map and refilled my water bottles.

Mostly walked up Washington Street to the bottom of Snake Alley. Before I got there, I passed a cobblestone alley going straight up. Looked like a bumpy ride to me. Thinking Snake Alley wasn't used any more, I ignored the one-way sign and walked my bike up. When I got to the top, I found a car patiently waiting to go down. As I rested there, another car, a motorcycle, and a pickup truck went down. A busy road!

It was 2:00pm now, so I called Gene to tell him I'd be there about 4:00pm. I intended to take Mount Pleasant Street, but missed a turn, so used the Burlington map to follow a bike route along Sunnyside Avenue. Eventually got back to Mount Pleasant Street heading west. Arrived in Middletown at 4:00pm. This small town has a bike lane!

Uncle Gene was happy to see me. We talked some about the threefold increase in his water bill, which has been determined to be due to a leaking-through toilet. He has someone lined up to work on that tomorrow. Next we moved on to replacing the toggle-type ignition switch with a key-switch on his early-fifties Ford NAA tractor. That project took longer than expected, but was a welcomed diversion from bike trip concerns.

Gene wanted me to stay overnight, but that would put me off schedule. My visit ended, as all my visits with Gene do, with a huge bowl of ice cream.

I left at 7:45pm for the six-mile ride to Geode State Park. This turned out to be the most enjoyable section of the trip so far - on a mostly flat, smooth road in the cool of the evening. Arrived at the campground at 8:32pm and selected a non-electric site ($11). Then I discovered I had no fives or tens for the self-pay envelope. Decided to upgrade to an electric site (#30) so my "donation" would be $4 instead of $9. My hub charging set-up has been working well, but might as well top everything off.

Got the tent set up and ate supper at 9:50pm: Beanee Weenees, applesauce, and sandwich cookies. Next was a most-welcomed shower. Worked on the report for a couple of hours until I couldn't stay awake any longer at 1:00am.

Jeff

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Spent: $2.13 (soda) + $1.92 (Gatorade) + $16 plus $4 donation (campsite) = $24.05.

Day 3 - Gladstone, IL to Danville, IA

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